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WordBoost

A FUN MOTIVATIONAL WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH
A vocabulary app that increases motivation to learn English in a challenging and fun way.
WordBoost Logo.png

The goal was to design a payment app that allowed for quick payment and social connection in an organic way.

Overview

I created an English vocabulary application called "WordBoost".  WordBoost strives to enhance learners' English proficiency and motivate them to continue reaching their vocabulary memorization goals . The product has a multi-level challenge system along with interaction rewards to help users maintain motivation in using the app to enhance English proficiency.

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This case study walks through the design process of designing WordBoost, a mobile vocabulary app, and the design decisions that I made through it. This is a personal project created as a User Experience Design student at CareerFoundry.

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  • Tools: Adobe XD, Balsamiq, Usability Hub, Optimal Card Sort

  • Project Duration: ~8 months

  • Role: Sole Designer

Addressing Painpoints

The problem was users were not motivated to continue meeting their memorization goals after a short period of time even though they knew these goals would help them improve their English vocabulary.

The Design Process

Identified the problem and market strategy of competing application.

Competitive Analysis

Empathized with users' experiences of payment applications through research.

User Interviews

User Proto-Personas

User Flow

Task Analysis

Synthesized research findings into app task flows, site maps and wireframes.

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Wireframes

Created multiple app design iterations  through testing and UI integration.

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Usability Testing

Next Steps

Understand

Competitive Analysis
First, I analyzed three vocabulary applications: Word of the Day, Vocabulary, and Vocab Junkie,  to better understand who my competitors were and their design approach. Each application had different approaches in how they designed their product.
 
Understand

Research

User Interviews
After analyzing competing vocabulary applications, I conducted and analyzed user interviews to to see how Basil could better meet user goals and needs and address the problems they experienced with payment apps.  
 
user interview notes_wordboost_edited.jpg
Color-coded patterns to find and categorize user behavior patterns and product issues
Research
User Proto-Persona
Using the insights and patterns I found, I created a user proto-persona, Azdihar Ahmed (see below).
My main target audience was international college students who were not native English speakers.
Meet Azdihar Ahmed, a Moroccan international in England, who is about to graduate and is looking for full-time employment in England. She uses her vocabulary app to help improve her English conversation skills and increase her job marketability.
Azdihar Ahmed_proto-persona_WordBoost.png
Problem Statement
 
The problem statement I attributed to Azdihar was that she needs a way to be motivated to consistently memorize vocabulary words because she usually loses motivation to memorize after a few days. We will know this to be true when we see she is able to consistently meet her memorization goals of memorizing a certain number of vocabulary words per day. 
Hypothesis Statement
 
We believe that by providing badges for each memorization goal and creating levels and random surprise rewards such as special badges will help her to be more motivated to consistently memorize a certain number of vocabulary words per day.
Task Analysis & User Flow
I then chose the two goals the user persona would want to accomplish and created user flows to visualize their navigation process to accomplish their task. 

Analyze

Wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframe
Analyze

Design & Test

Usability Testing
I conducted usability tests over Zoom with three participants with a low-fidelity prototype.
Login_Marvel Prototype_WordBoost.png
Low-fidelity prototype (Marvel)
Usability test plan, script and tasks
Usability test notes
Usabilty test report and severity ranking
Prototype revisions based on usability test report
Design & Test

Future Steps

Due to time constraints, I was not able to continue with the designing and testing process; however, if I were to have additional time, I would have continued to conduct multiple rounds of usability testing and make iterations each round based on user feedback to make improvements to the design.

I would also have conducted A/B testing and integrated UI such as having random rewards and a blue color scheme to increase productivity and learning to create an overall motivating and engaging experience for users.

 
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Copyright Christina Yau 2024
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